Abstract
The present experiment assessed the construct validity of Byrne's theory of repression-sensitization in relation to the fear of death. College women who customarily employ repressive modes of ego defense were expected to manifest only covert anxiety when given a message designed to arouse thoughts of one's own death, while those identified as sensitizers would display both overt and covert anxiety in response to the message. Two levels of treatment (death-threat vs neutral) were factorially combined with the two defensive extremes (repression vs sensitization). The general prediction was not supported for 40 undergraduates; the two main effects were not simultaneously operative, and no interactions were significant. Results cannot be interpreted as supporting Byrne's theory.
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